St Stanislaus Kostka Church

St. Stanislaus Kostka Church is an independent Catholic church located in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Formerly a Roman Catholic parish, it was established in 1880 to serve the Polish community in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. It is considered to be the best example of the opulent Polish Cathedral style of architecture west of the Mississippi River.The church is notable for a highly publicized dispute over control of the parish and its assets between the church's lay board of directors and the Archdiocese of St. Louis. In December 2005, the Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke declared the parish's board members and its priest, Marek Bozek, excommunicated and announced his intention to suppress the parish, that is, disband it, with the likelihood that the premises would be sold. The church responded by holding a Christmas Eve Mass attended by 1,500-2,000 people. The church and the Archdiocese settled their legal dispute in 2013.The church continues to be maintained and managed by its parishioners as a not-for-profit corporation, calling itself "Catholic", but which is unaffiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.Church historyIn 1878, the Archdiocese of St. Louis authorized the construction of a parish to serve the city's growing Polish Catholic community, which up until then attended St. Patrick's at Sixth and Biddle Streets. In 1880, construction began on St. Stanislaus Kostka. The church was built just north of Downtown St. Louis, in a neighborhood that was home to a large number of Polish immigrants. The original church building was built in Romanesque Revival style. It was originally administered by the Franciscans and was the mother church for three other Polish parishes-St. Casimir(1889), St. Hedwig (1904) and our Lady of Czestochowa (1907).